MNGL shocker: Residents get bills sans connection!

50 residents of Ajmera Hsg Complex had opted for piped gas in Nov 2013; no service yet

50 residents of Jagruti Housing Society in Ajmera Housing Complex, Pimprihave received bills for a piped gas connection that do not exist.
dna Correspondentdna

Pune: In a comedy of errors, nearly 50 residents of Jagruti Housing Society in Ajmera Housing Complex, Pimprihave received bills for a piped gas connection that do not exist.
Maharashtra Natural Gas Limited (MNGL) has started its work of laying gas pipelines and a pipeline has been laid from Morwadi to Swapna Nagari Road in Nehrunagar, Pimpri. Ajmera Housing Complex is located on this road itself. As natural gas is inexpensive compared to the cooking gas cylinders, people had opted for this instead of using LPG cylinders.
The residents said that they had paid for these connections in November 2013, but even after 6 months, they still do not have gas connections in their houses.
Balaji Iyer, secretary of Jagruti Housing Society told dna, “There are 108 houses in this society. All the residents had paid for the natural gas connection but only 60 per cent of the houses have received it. The other houses do not even have the gas meters fitted, and still they have received bills with meter readings.”
Sameer Deshpande, a resident of Jagruti Housing Society said, “I do not have a gas connection and meter fitted in my house. Still I have received a bill of Rs430. I repeatedly called the MNGL Customer Care, but did not get any response from them. I sent a complaint email as well, but I did not receive any reply.”
P S Borale, another resident of the society, said, “I do not have a connection, still I have received a bill of Rs356. I am going to complain at MNGL Office, Shivajinagar. MNGL is trying to extract money from common citizens.”
Replying to these complaints, Mahendra Kumar Singh, Manager of MNGL Pune said, “I am aware of this case. I accept that there have been errors in reading the meters. But MNGL assigns billing work to contractors. So, we are going to take a legal action against the contractors. Residents, who have received wrong bills, will not be charged. We will try to solve this problem as soon as possible.”